New bands blog - No 3

People have been getting excited about Outfit
for a little bit and a the Liverpool five-piece look like they’re going to be pretty great at confounding those people’s
expectations too. If people had them pegged as the next Friendly Fires after the blissed out ‘Two Islands’, their
next offering ‘Dashing In Passing’ veers away from that. The band themselves describe it as “creepy R’n’B”
and that’s a pretty good shout. Their forthcoming EP should put anyone pining for Late Of The Pier’s relentless
genre-hopping on alert.

Lucy Rose
One question: is Lucy Rose
really still unsigned? If she is, it hasn’t stopped her latest single ‘Red Face’ getting picked up by Radio
1. Maybe someone has swooped in while I’m typing this. You may know her as the sweet voice underpinning the last two
Bombay Bicycle Club albums and their live show, but hopefully you’ll soon know her for her own delightfully cracked
folk tunes. The Laura Marling comparisons are inevitable, but these songs have a special feel all of their own.

Michael Lovett, a.k.a. NZCA/Lines, used to be in Gabriel Stebbing’s post-Metronomy band Your Twenties, but
now he’s making perfect, clever pop songs along the lines of his mate’s old band and Hot Chip. Live, it’s
like witnessing the best synth-pop hits the eighties never had, with Lovett’s falsetto hanging perfectly above the minimalistic
backing.

ScruFizzer
Hopefully ScruFizzer will be the next big breakthrough star from the UK hip-hop underground. He’s got the relentless,
rapid-fire scattergun style of ‘Boy In Da Corner’-era Dizzee and doesn’t he know it. There’s a trail
of impressive Youtube videos and freestyles, and with 1Xtra and Radio1’s Annie Mac already lending their support, all
he needs is a ‘Pass Out’/’Fix Up, Look Sharp’/’Traktor’ of his own and he’ll go
supernova.

Ben Kweller
Okay, Ben Kweller is
not exactly a new artist. Having released records since his mid-teens, he’s on his fifth solo album, but he continues,
rather unfairly, to fly under the radar over here. It’s a pity, as it’s virtually impossible to leave a gig of
his without a great big stupid grin on your face. While his earlier work recalled the crunchy pop of Weezer or The Lemonheads,
his more recent efforts have betrayed his childhood love of The Beatles and country music. His new album ‘Go Fly A Kite’
brings all of it together, coming off like George Harrison gone grunge.